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5 Common GI Bill Pay Delays

Ideally, the transition from servicemember to veteran to student should be seamless, but that isn’t always the case. When hiccups happen, pay can be delayed and, especially for people used to being paid the same amount at the same time every month, those pay delays can get frustrating, not to mention expensive. While the complexity of VA’s regulations mean there are any number of reasons your education benefits, especially your first housing payment, can be delayed, I’m going to cover five common ones here.

1) Missing or Incomplete Application: Whether you were told by your recruiter that signing on the dotted line got you $64,000 dollars for education or your dad told you that you were “entitled” to the GI Bill because he transferred it to you, you can’t actually use your education benefits until you apply for them through the VA. The VA then has to verify your information and you have to get a “letter of eligibility” from them verifying those benefits. By VA regulation, a school can’t stop you from signing up because you haven’t taken this step yet, but the longer you wait, the longer it is going to take to get paid. And, if the VA finds some glitch that causes them to deny your claim, then you end up holding the bill.

If you’re active duty, I recommend you apply for your benefits shortly before you leave active service, so VA has time to process your application and get you that letter before it’s time for you to sign up for classes. That said, if you apply while still on active duty, you’ll need to provide VA a copy of your DD-214 as soon as you get it. Otherwise, VA thinks you are still getting DoD housing and won’t pay you VA housing. If you submitted your DD-214 with your disability claim, then you should be good, but I always suggest attaching one to your electronic application, just in case. (The two arms of VA – VBA and VHA – don’t always play nice and the more work you can do for the VA, the faster your claim gets processed.)

There are lots of other items that could be missing, such as you forgot to elect which benefit you want to give up in order to receive Post-9/11 or you’re a dependent who isn’t in DEERS so they need proof of your relationship to the veteran. If you are a dependent using Post-9/11, you’ll need to be sure you did both parts of the application – the DoD part done by your parent (called transfer of eligibility) and the VA part done by you (VONAPP application). Be sure to read the posts I did on each individual VA education benefit (under “Education and Training: VA Education Benefits” on the menu at the right) to determine what other paperwork you might need to submit.

2) Regional Processing Office change: Imagine this scenario: You followed that crazy blog Captain’s advice and submitted your application for your GI Bill while still stationed at Cherry Point, NC. Then you leave active duty and move home to live with your parents while you attend school in New York. You know what you want to study, you take advantage of your school’s early registration for veterans program, and you notify your School Certifying Official that you are registered. You even get a letter from the VA showing they processed your certification. So, you start school, confident that you’ve done everything you’re supposed to, and then the first of the month comes, and you don’t get paid. What happened? Well, it is likely to do with your move.

The VA has four Regional Processing Offices and, even though they all use the same system, they don’t always talk to each other. If you submit your application while under one region’s AOR and then end up attending school in another region’s AOR, chances are the VA will process your certification and send you the letter telling you they did BUT, since they don’t have your entire file (the other regional office does), they can’t authorize the payment. If you run into this situation, call the VA Education Line and explain that you switched regional offices and your current regional office will request your file and push your case up one level for authorization. If you know you are crossing regional AOR lines, submit a form VA Form 22-1995 (veterans) or VA Form 22-5495 (dependents) to your new regional office as soon as you sign up for classes and this should preempt any mix up.

3) Delayed certification: So, in the previous example, my fictional vet did everything right and took advantage of his school’s early registration policy and his SCO was on top of things. What if one or more of these things goes awry?

First, let’s start with the student. Lots of students are procrastinators and wait until the very last minute to sign up. Or, they are those chronic schedule changers who sign up for classes and then make umpteen schedule changes until the add/drop period is over. The longer you take to register, the longer it is going to take to get paid. For starters, the VA can take three weeks or more to process a certification. Then, any changes you make to your schedule have to be reported. If the changes go in before VA processed your original certification, your pay is going to be delayed. So, think carefully about what classes you want to take, meet with an advisor if you need to, sign up early, and try to keep changes to a minimum.

Then, there’s the SCO. Your School Certifying Official is probably a very busy person. Being an SCO may be an additional duty for them, which has to be accomplished on top of all of their regular work, or it may be their full time job, but they may have hundreds or even thousands of students they are responsible for. Or, sadly, they may just have no sense of urgency. Regardless of the situation, it may be weeks after registration closes before your SCO even has time to submit your certification (or any changes you made) to the VA. And then VA may take weeks after that to process the certification and schedule your payment. Give your SCO a reasonable amount of time to submit your certification, but then stay on top of them. You don’t want to be a pest, but it is your pay we’re talking about!

4) No WAVE verification: If you’re using traditional Montgomery GI Bill (Ch 30), MGIB-SR (Ch 1606), or REAP (Ch 1607), you have to verify your attendance each and every month before the VA will release your housing allowance. You can do this on the last day of the month or the first day of the following month. For example, if school started August 20th, you can verify your attendance for August on August 31st or September 1st. Once you attendance is verified, you are usually paid within about 5 business days (sometimes longer). If you forget to verify your attendance, VA will not release your payment. You can verify your attendance here.

Note: Students who were using the VRAP were required to verify using WAVE and future VA education benefits may also require it, so be sure to check the requirements and keep up on any changes to your benefit. Currently, Post-9/11 students do NOT have to verify their attendance.

5) Contested Claim: Overpayment. Such a dreaded word. It basically means VA paid you too much and they want their money back. If you think VA got it wrong and you don’t actually owe them money, or maybe you do but you appeal it because you don’t have the funds to pay it, the VA is going to review it (their overpayment letter will come with directions on how you can contest the debt). If you contest VA’s claim that you owe them money, though, it may halt all future education payments, until VA can determine whether you are right or not. I’m not advocating letting VA take money that isn’t theirs – if you think they got it wrong (and they do sometimes), contest it. Just be sure to talk to them regularly and be prepared that it might mean no future education payments until you have the situation cleared up.

So, these are five reasons why your pay might be delayed. However, as I mentioned at the start, there are a number of reasons that your pay may be delayed. If you don’t get paid on the first on the month, start by contacting your SCO and confirm that your certification was submitted. If the SCO confirms it, then call the VA Education Line (1-888-442-4551 CONUS or 001-716-857-3196 OCONUS) or submit your question via VA’s “Ask a Question” site. Keep in mind that there are over a million veteran students just using the Post-9/11 GI Bill and even more using the other education programs VA administers, so you might have to wait a bit.

Was this post helpful? Was your pay delayed for a different reason than the ones I listed here? Leave a comment and let me know what the reason was and how it was resolved.

VA has been having a number of issues meeting payment deadlines since January. They have sited increased number of enrollments and a software upgrade as the reason for the delayed payments.

You can contact the GI Bill hotline to see if there is a different issue that pertains to your specific case, or if you have a serious financial hardship. You can also contact organizations such as Student Veterans for America or VFW, both of whom I know are working this issue.

My payment was supposed to process on March 9, it’s now March 17. I’ve called the VA numerous times and they all say “just be patient, it should process today”
I personally feel there is an issue that’s being missed. Does this happen often?

It has happened in the past, but not frequently. It is being tracked by VSOs, such as VFW and SVA, and you can reach out to them for more info. From what I have been able to determine, VA is claiming an unexpected number of enrollment certifications for the Spring enrollment and a computer software upgrade are causing the delay.

First time payments can be delayed. If you are in the middle of the semester and were already being paid, it is generally unusual that your pay is delayed. However, I know VA has been having issues delivering BAH on time.

If it’s your first payment, I recommend you contact your SCO to make sure he/she submitted your certification for this semester.

If it is not your first payment, I recommend you e-mail 1StudentVeteran@vfw.org as I know VFW has been working this issue for several other veterans.

First time payments can be delayed. If you are in the middle of the semester and were already being paid, it is generally unusual that your pay is delayed. However, I know VA has been having issues delivering BAH on time.

If it’s your first payment, I recommend you contact your SCO to make sure he/she submitted your certification for this semester.

If it is not your first payment, I recommend you e-mail 1StudentVeteran@vfw.org as I know VFW has been working this issue for several other veterans.

What happens if you attended school, you passed all the classes, and sometime later (almost 3 years later) the school sends your account into collections for funds that they claim were never received from the VA? While the VA claims the opposite?

Unfortunately, the debt is ultimately your responsibility to resolve. However, VA should have sent you a letter each semester explaining how many semester hours you were taking and the amount of tuition and fees they paid to the school. If you have these, you can take them back to the school registrar and make them go back to their payments for that semester and locate the funds. If you don’t still have the letters, you can log into your ebenefits account and you should be able to pull up all of the payments VA made on your behalf. Again, take them to the registrar for the school and have them match the payments. Additionally, I would contact the VA debt management center and ask for a detailed list of the amounts they paid the school on your behalf and the dates those payments were made-that should help the registrar locate the payments and assign them to your account.

Once you get to the bottom of whether VA paid everything it should have, then you can go through the process of clearing up the credit implications-have the school contact the credit agencies to remove the debt removed from your record. If it turns out the school erred in turning over your account to collections, you need to discuss with them having them pay any fees you incurred as a result of their error.

Also, I would reach out to the school certifying official. They are required to keep a record for each student for 3 years after the last day you attended classes. He/she may have something in that record that may be helpful in sorting out the situation, particularly as most schools have rules about letting you register for classes if you still owe money and there may be proof in the files that your accounts were paid in full.

I’m using my father’s GI Bill and I am enrolled in school from August 30th to December 16th and I have yet to receive my BAH for the month of November. How long do you think it’ll take for it to come in the mail?

If you have received BAH for September and October, you should receive your payment for November soon. If you aren’t using direct deposit-and I thought everyone was required to now-then it may have been delayed in the mail because of the holiday. I recommend talking to your school certifying official to make sure there wasn’t any change to your certification. If there was no change, then I would call the GI Bill hotline 888-GIBILL-1 (888-442-4551) or use the Ask A Question website https://gibill.custhelp.com/app/utils/login_form/redirect/ask If you have an ebenefits account, you should also be able to track your payments there.

I have been using my Post 9/11 GI Bill for 16 months, and have had my benefits put on hold because the DoD needs to “verify my active duty time”. Why and how often does this occur? Is there a timeframe for which I can expect to wait to begin using my GI Bill again? Any information is greatly appreciated.

It is unusual for VA to require that they verify your AD time after using your benefits for so long. However, if you are Guard or Reserve, you may have added additional time that they need to verify in order to up your percentage. If you are off AD, there shouldn’t be a reason for that to happen, as your months should be listed on your DD-214. If you have already tried to contact VA via their GI Bill hotline, I recommend you submit a question here: https://gibill.custhelp.com/app/utils/login_form/redirect/ask Be sure to be clear about the situation (your current military status, how long you have been using benefits, where the information that your benefits had been put on hold came from, etc) so that they have the complete picture when they answer your question. I would also ask them to confirm that this is the reason your benefits were put on hold, just to cover your bases. You should get a response from them within 48-72 hours.

I turned in all my paperwork and became certified recently with my school after being told i was already certified. After which I called the VA and they told me I would not be receiving BAH or backpay for the month of September because I was released from the military Sept. 5th. I started classes August 30th. Te VA rep. stated that I would not receive BAH by law… I informed her that i had not received any BAH since August 15th and this is the only way I can stay in the apartments. Is this true?

Currently, you cannot receive BAH from DoD and VA in the same month. The new Forever GI Bill changes that for Reservists, starting in August of next year (2018), and there is legislation being proposed to do the same for active duty personnel.

In the meantime, if your last day on AD was technically Sept 5th, you should receive a final BAH payment from DoD covering the dates after 15 August. I would reach out DFAS or your service branch to see why that didn’t happen. If VA has a copy of your DD-214, they should begin paying you 1 Oct. If they don’t have a copy of that, you need to get it to them.

While VA/DoD sorts that out, there are several avenues you can go to for temporary financial assistance. If you completed your FAFSA (and all veterans should do that so you can see if you qualify for PELL grant in addition to GI Bill-ask for a professional review if you get denied and be sure to submit your DD-214 with your review request), then go to your financial aid department and see about PELL or a need grant. Several Veterans Services Organizations also offer temporary funds. Try VFW’s Unmet Needs Grant or try your service branch organizations, such as Marine Corps League, who may be able to help cover one month of a bill to help offset the hardship. Check your state veterans services office as well, as they may have a program that can assist in this situation.

I hope this helps point you in the right direction. Reach out again if you need more financial assistance ideas and those I listed don’t pan out.

i applied for COE last year august for post 911 benefits after a few weeks i received my COE .. so i decided not to enroll till May of this year for June class .. so i was confident enough that i got everything including my military transcript and my enrollement went smooth .. now i expecting that i will get my allowance around 1 week of july but didnt so i called gi bill hotline and told me than they dont have anything on file .. so i talked to my SCO and he told me that he sent out my enrollement jun21 and va acknowledge it on the 23 .. when i called back the VA about it with certID on hand they told me that my file was in stockton MO .. im from california and attending school here in california and for some odd reason why in the hell my file went all the way to the wrong regional office .. while my COE that i received last year came from muskogee OK which is the right regional office handles california student .. now im broke no book and housing allowance and the VA told me pretty much is a waiting game

First, VA doesn’t work that quickly. It can take 30 days or more for them to process an initial certification (meaning the very first time you try to use your benefits). So a 1 Jul payment is unrealistic and I’m sorry your SCO didn’t tell you that. However, you should have received a payment in August.

If you didn’t receive a payment in August either, it is probably because there is a glitch in VA’s process that means that if you filed your application for COE in a region that is different from where you ultimately attend school, a secondary approval to release the funds is required after your SCO submits it and the current regional office approves it. If you still have not been paid, call and let them know that your application was filed in a different region and that you would like them to look to see if the approval for release of funds has been given.

In the meantime, I would go to your school’s financial aid office and see what they can do. Often they have grants or other financial aid that can be used in addition to your GI Bill, or until your GI Bill kicks in. This is especially true if you are pursuing an undergraduate degree and can qualify for PELL grants. If you haven’t filled out your FAFSA, you should do that, so that your school can determine your eligibility for other aid. You can fill your FAFSA out here: https://fafsa.ed.gov

Also, explore local veterans organizations. Often they have grants that they can provide to veterans who find themselves in financial hardship, including because of a delay in VA benefits.

My SCO wont verify my attendance even though they have had my certificate of acceptance for months. They told me yesterday that they need a copy of my military transcripts before they can verify my attendance. I have sent them a copy of my military transcripts but, also spoke to a woman at the GiBill hotline. The GIBill woman said they don’t need a copy of my transcripts. That the SCO should have verified my attendance the minute they received my certificate of acceptance. Please tell me what is going on. I have been in school for three months with no GiBill benefits.

If you are enrolled in school, taking classes eligible for GI Bill benefits, and have provided your SCO with proof of eligibility, they legally cannot prevent you from receiving those benefits and should immediately report your enrollment to VA. Per the SCO handbook (pg. 44): “Schools are requested to submit certifications as early as possible in order to ensure that
students receive their benefit payments in a timely manner, but must be submitted 30 days of the
beginning of the term.” They are required to submit the certifications, even if you have applied but not yet received your COE.

That said, the law (38 CFR) also has a requirement that the school evaluate all of your transcripts, including your military ones, to assign you credit for work you have already completed. The SCO handbook states that the school is required to conduct the transcript evaluation and that the school must have and enforce a policy regarding transfer of credit. The handbook stipulates that this must be done with a student enrolls in a school and when they change degree programs and this is an inspectable item for schools. However, it also states: “Schools should make every effort to obtain transcripts to comply with the requirement to evaluate and grant credit where appropriate. However, if a transcript cannot be obtained, you may continue to certify enrollment as long as the student has matriculated.”

Bottomline: While the school has a requirement to obtain and evaluate all of your transcripts, they cannot keep you from receiving your GI Bill benefits. I would go back to your SCO and request again that they certify your attendance. If they refuse, I would ask them to please call VA while you are in the office to get VA’s take on it. If they again refuse, then I would let them know that you will be filing a complaint using the GI Bill feedback tool: http://www.benefits.va.gov/GIBILL/Feedback.asp